Woman flushing toilet

Some people view a toilet as a wastebasket that allows them to flush away everyday items easily. Unfortunately, many things that end up in a toilet should never be flushed and may cause severe clogging in a home’s wastewater plumbing system and could contaminate the water system.

 

Items you should never flush
  • Disposable/flushable wipes
  • Grease
    • Remember “store it don’t pour it”
  • Floss
  • Tampons and feminine pads
  • Disposable Diapers
  • Band-aids
  • Grease, oil, and fat
  • Paper towels
  • Medication
    • Take unwanted or expired medication to your local pharmacy for appropriate disposal. Flushing medication and pills can be harmful to the environment.
  • Condoms
  • Needles
  • Hair
  • Cat litter
  • Cotton balls and swabs
  • Cigarette butts
  • Household waste
    • Cleaners, disinfectants, chemicals, and paint thinners are considered household hazardous waste.
Are Flushable Wipes Really Flushable?

NO, if it’s not toilet paper it does not break down well and as a result has the ability to restrict the flow, combine with other things in the sewer and lead to blockages!

Help Reduce Sewer Blockages!

FOG or Fats Oils and Greases is a big concern in our sewer collection system. Under the right conditions FOG combined with NON FLUSHABLE wipes and other debris such as cotton swabs, sanitary napkins, needles, condoms and food waste will eventually restrict flow and result in sewer blockages. Blockages in the collection system can have the possibility of also leading to unwanted discharges to the natural environment.

Maintaining the sewer collection system is a costly business and if we all do our part we can reduce maintenance costs and help protect our infrastructure!

To help communicate the importance of protecting our infrastructure Norfolk County has recently updated the Sewer Use By-law. The bylaw is in place to help protect our collection system, the associated infrastructure and control the amount of nutrient loading to the wastewater treatment plant. Limiting these factors will support better compliance at the treatment plant and as a result the natural tributaries will continually receive good, economical effluent.

Resources
What can we flush?

 

Non-Flushable Wipes

 

What Can’t Be Flushed and Why
I don’t flush